The Olympic Games are here and as
magical performance follows magical performance, the benefits of
the decision to use the inspiration of a home Games to motivate
more people to make sport part of their lives are already being
felt.
In fact, the dividend for grassroots sport
began before the Games as the number of people playing sport every
week went over 15 million for the first time – an increase driven
by a stronger focus on giving consumers what they want from sport,
backed by significant investment.
And now the intense spotlight on the
magnificent members of Team GB is encouraging even more people to
get involved.
Rowing, for example, is reporting a massive
upsurge in enquiries to its grassroots Explore Rowing programme
following the success of the women and men on the water at Eton
Dorney.
As our hockey teams perform heroics in the
Olympic Park, the Hockey
Nation campaign is bringing taster sessions to clubs and
facilities across the country – including in the Olympic Park
itself where 15,000 people have picked up a stick again in just 10
days.
In cycling, for whom Bradley Wiggins began the
gold rush, more than 1,000 people have signed up as members of
British Cycling in just two weeks.
Around the Weymouth sailing venue where Ben
Ainslie became the greatest Olympic sailor in history, over 40,000
people have taken advantage of a Sport Arena offering sports from
rugby union to volleyball and sailing to table tennis. Crucially
every one of them will be contacted when they get home with support
on staying involved in sport.
England Volleyball has reported an 850%
increase in traffic to its website as it promotes its Go Spike grassroots initiative.
All of the sports we fund have plans in place
to keep hold of these new participants by giving them a good
experience.
Alongside the work of the individual sports,
our Places People Play legacy programme is bringing legacy benefits
to every corner of England. Already, over 850 sports clubs,
facilities and playing fields have benefitted from £70 million of
this National Lottery investment. All will carry the London 2012
Inspire mark – celebrating the link to the Games.
As we help a new generation to discover the
right sport for them, we are also investing in the programmes to
spot and then nurture those with talent to emulate the likes of
Jessica Ennis and Andy Murray.
Around a quarter of Sport England’s investment
since we won the bid in 2005 has gone into supporting talented
young athletes.
As well as supporting talent identification
and coaching, we have also invested in over 50 high performance
centres around the country, including EIS Sheffield where Jess
Ennis trains. Our national centre at Lilleshall has received £16
million of investment, helping elite athletes based there such as
Louis Smith, who yesterday added an individual silver medal in the
pommel horse to the team bronze won last week.
Jason Kenny, who sprung to prominence in
Beijing, goes for his second gold of London 2012 today. His rise
has been stellar, but he started out on British Cycling’s
grassroots programme Go Ride which links clubs with schools.
We believe that continuing to strengthen the
ties between community sports clubs and schools is critical both to
finding future Olympians and helping more young people develop a
sporting habit for life. Under our strategy every English secondary
school will be offered a community sport club on its site with a
direct link to one or more sports.
Having a community club within the school and
linked to local sports clubs makes it easier for young people to
choose to get involved in sport beyond the school curriculum and
then make the move into their local club.
We’re determined to harness the excitement of
the Games to continue this growth and the early signs are good.
There's a long way to go on the legacy journey and
everyone in sport now needs to work harder than ever to keep the
momentum going. But we’re on the right road.